This was a nice little epilogue expansion to the original Lisa.
It kinda feels like it could've been a lot better if it was given a longer runtime, but still, I thought it was neat.
It kinda feels like it could've been a lot better if it was given a longer runtime, but still, I thought it was neat.
This review contains spoilers
2 stars probably for music alone TW for sexual abuse/ Child abuse, not going to waste time with this.
Buddy is a minor and doesn't actually understand shit but apparently she does understand that the men would rape her so thats why she acts violent actually its because the plot drug is making her CRAZZY, Actually its because rando wants her not to kill people like her father, but she feels thats caging her in so she kills him for no reason, even though rando did not approve of his men harassing buddy and knocking her out and having her tied up, because rando is the one good person in this series, which using the excuse that buddys childhood is fucked up doesn't work because rando also had a fucked up childhood. he literally got his face cut off by buzzo who sucks too hes just edgy man who "got manipulated by lisa because he liked her"
which as said in the painful review I made the two women in this series aren't written well which hurts when they are such a main focus, Lisa is a victim of sexual abuse making her a manipulator and "actually a fucked person too" for the sake of keeping things morally grey is just awful writing.
buddy's motives makes no sense and she literally can't listen to anyone I get shes a kid but only at the very end they HINT at remorse.
theres so many fangames and fanfic either having it be a retelling or a sequel to joyful because the writing imo is just that bad, even back when I played this in high school I hated this games plot
dr yado is a dumb villain "I want to turn everyone into monsters only i can control" why? "because its cool"
gameplay is also repetitive and boring not AWFUL or even bad just not fun, since its mostly a solo journey buddy can do damage or heal with items which will be every battle you do.
buddy learns in the end to not be bad but also to have sex an repopulate the earth with whatever chosen spouse she left alive. I guess we technically see buddy regret things but we don't really feel it because the games over and it tries so hard to tie every plot thing together in a short experience.
painful would be better as a stand alone with fan games, play the fangames.
Buddy is a minor and doesn't actually understand shit but apparently she does understand that the men would rape her so thats why she acts violent actually its because the plot drug is making her CRAZZY, Actually its because rando wants her not to kill people like her father, but she feels thats caging her in so she kills him for no reason, even though rando did not approve of his men harassing buddy and knocking her out and having her tied up, because rando is the one good person in this series, which using the excuse that buddys childhood is fucked up doesn't work because rando also had a fucked up childhood. he literally got his face cut off by buzzo who sucks too hes just edgy man who "got manipulated by lisa because he liked her"
which as said in the painful review I made the two women in this series aren't written well which hurts when they are such a main focus, Lisa is a victim of sexual abuse making her a manipulator and "actually a fucked person too" for the sake of keeping things morally grey is just awful writing.
buddy's motives makes no sense and she literally can't listen to anyone I get shes a kid but only at the very end they HINT at remorse.
theres so many fangames and fanfic either having it be a retelling or a sequel to joyful because the writing imo is just that bad, even back when I played this in high school I hated this games plot
dr yado is a dumb villain "I want to turn everyone into monsters only i can control" why? "because its cool"
gameplay is also repetitive and boring not AWFUL or even bad just not fun, since its mostly a solo journey buddy can do damage or heal with items which will be every battle you do.
buddy learns in the end to not be bad but also to have sex an repopulate the earth with whatever chosen spouse she left alive. I guess we technically see buddy regret things but we don't really feel it because the games over and it tries so hard to tie every plot thing together in a short experience.
painful would be better as a stand alone with fan games, play the fangames.
siri play 666 kill chop deluxe on spotify
shockingly, this DLC that's widely maligned by its own fandom ended up being something i enjoyed more than its base game. i think being shorter helped a bit, there's less room for jorgensen to misstep and make emotional moments that don't work, and the ones in here feel much more earned and impactful. that ending part with buddy coming to terms with brad in particular is a highlight of the entire LISA trilogy, easily.
the problems with this DLC are ultimately that it's very monotonous. i don't think you inherently needed to add party members to this to make it fun, but making the majority of the game be solo encounters basically requires a very turtle-y playstyle that gets very repetitive and boring. it's exacerbated by the fact that like 60% of the encounters in the game are joy mutants that all have roughly the same set of moves, and some of them have an obscene amount of health that makes the fight take like 3x longer than it really should. and while joyful is excessive in how it handles combat, it's honestly too minimal in actual story. i like that this is relatively terse and self-contained, but a 3 hour DLC that's mostly just encounters you could've gotten from the base game feels underwhelming.
still, i find buddy to be more fascinating and groundbreaking of a main character than brad, and i think jorgensen handles her with a shocking amount of tact. buddy feels just as asocial and isolated as someone who lived her life would be. i've seen the sentiment that people feel as though buddy is unlikeable and/or excessively abrasive, but i think telling a story where she acts like a quirky shut-in seeing the world for the first time like elizabeth from bioshock: infinite would not only devalue her character, but it would make the narrative a lot less engaging. she has baggage and trauma, she reacts in uncomfortable and challenging ways, and you don't necessarily have to like it, but you do understand.
on a final note, i really dislike the bits of lore that the epilogues add to the game. they feel unnecessary, and i greatly dislike the framing of "lisa was actually the source of all the darkness in the narrative and influenced buzzo to become a monster", something the game tries to hammer home two separate times. it removes agency from his character while simultaneously demonizing children of abuse as these horrific monsters, another abuse trope that jorgensen probably thinks is way more subversive than it really is.
either way, i enjoyed my time with this expansion and was pleasantly surprised to get more good than bad out of it, especially after the base game. it doesn't stand on its own legs by any means, though, so i doubt i'll ever revisit this considering it'd have to involve revisiting the entire trilogy. i'd rather put this set of games to bed and never come back to it.
the problems with this DLC are ultimately that it's very monotonous. i don't think you inherently needed to add party members to this to make it fun, but making the majority of the game be solo encounters basically requires a very turtle-y playstyle that gets very repetitive and boring. it's exacerbated by the fact that like 60% of the encounters in the game are joy mutants that all have roughly the same set of moves, and some of them have an obscene amount of health that makes the fight take like 3x longer than it really should. and while joyful is excessive in how it handles combat, it's honestly too minimal in actual story. i like that this is relatively terse and self-contained, but a 3 hour DLC that's mostly just encounters you could've gotten from the base game feels underwhelming.
still, i find buddy to be more fascinating and groundbreaking of a main character than brad, and i think jorgensen handles her with a shocking amount of tact. buddy feels just as asocial and isolated as someone who lived her life would be. i've seen the sentiment that people feel as though buddy is unlikeable and/or excessively abrasive, but i think telling a story where she acts like a quirky shut-in seeing the world for the first time like elizabeth from bioshock: infinite would not only devalue her character, but it would make the narrative a lot less engaging. she has baggage and trauma, she reacts in uncomfortable and challenging ways, and you don't necessarily have to like it, but you do understand.
on a final note, i really dislike the bits of lore that the epilogues add to the game. they feel unnecessary, and i greatly dislike the framing of "lisa was actually the source of all the darkness in the narrative and influenced buzzo to become a monster", something the game tries to hammer home two separate times. it removes agency from his character while simultaneously demonizing children of abuse as these horrific monsters, another abuse trope that jorgensen probably thinks is way more subversive than it really is.
either way, i enjoyed my time with this expansion and was pleasantly surprised to get more good than bad out of it, especially after the base game. it doesn't stand on its own legs by any means, though, so i doubt i'll ever revisit this considering it'd have to involve revisiting the entire trilogy. i'd rather put this set of games to bed and never come back to it.
I played this immediately after Lisa The Painful so it is basically the same game in my mind.
a pretty dissapointing followup to painful that is missing the things which make that game unique. it picks up right where painful ends off so any unanswered questions that made that ending interesting are immediately resolved, also buddy's writing is veeery paper thin and i don't think it does her character justice at this point in the story
if you enjoyed painful, it's still worth a try, but i hear the fangames are much better
THE SOUNDTRACKS PRETTY GOOD THOUGH... #AMAZEBALLS
if you enjoyed painful, it's still worth a try, but i hear the fangames are much better
THE SOUNDTRACKS PRETTY GOOD THOUGH... #AMAZEBALLS
damn buddy is one bad bitch
it's soup time bayyyyB
I got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy down in my heart. WHERE?
Narrative: 3.5
Gameplay: 3
Visuals: 2.5
X-Factor: 3
LISA: The Joyful is a good game that unfortunatly is a sequel to a fantastic game. LISA: The Painful manages to balance unique, nuanced stories with the hilarity of its characters. Compared to the original, this game fails to capture the same Joy. By limiting the scope of the game to focus more intensely on one character rather than the party-based system in the first game, Lisa: The Joyful's combat sufferers greatly. One of the best aspects of the original is how deeply connected the story and characters are expressed in combat. That simply is missing in this game.
I think the best way to enjoy Lisa: The Painful is to think of it as a bonus mode of the original game. While still a good experience, temper your expectations as the game does not attempt to achieve the same feats as the original.
Narrative: 3.5
Gameplay: 3
Visuals: 2.5
X-Factor: 3
LISA: The Joyful is a good game that unfortunatly is a sequel to a fantastic game. LISA: The Painful manages to balance unique, nuanced stories with the hilarity of its characters. Compared to the original, this game fails to capture the same Joy. By limiting the scope of the game to focus more intensely on one character rather than the party-based system in the first game, Lisa: The Joyful's combat sufferers greatly. One of the best aspects of the original is how deeply connected the story and characters are expressed in combat. That simply is missing in this game.
I think the best way to enjoy Lisa: The Painful is to think of it as a bonus mode of the original game. While still a good experience, temper your expectations as the game does not attempt to achieve the same feats as the original.